patchMar 15, 2025
A Sysadmin, but not *your* Sysadmin

I need a programming book for someone that knows the basics but needs an introduction to that language specifically. "Here's Go's syntax for an if statement, here's a for loop, here's a variable definition."

I'm tired of reading "An if conditional is a way to give your code the ability to make choices" over and over.

But also, as a Sysadmin with no CompSci classes under my belt, maybe also a "how to actually organize a program that spans more than a few functions" would be nice?

Mar 15, 2025 at 4:06amWeb
Show threadpatchMar 15, 2025
@NotYourSysadmin its unofficial, but simple. Try to keep a flat structure within pkg/, internal/ and cmd/. Put interfaces and public structs in pkg/. Look up the Accept Interfaces, Return Structs pattern for your pkg/ modules, implement those interfaces in your internal/, then import either or both as necessary into your cmd/thing/main.go. This pattern will keep it simple, avoid circular imports and you’ll see it in most mature Go projects as well, so easy to jump in to other code bases and know what’s going on. Cheers!
Show threadA Sysadmin, but not *your* SysadminMar 15, 2025
@patch I appreciate the advice, once I get to that level of complexity. I meant in general; I've been playing with Python for something like 20 years and I have the same struggle there. I feel like it's mostly a lack of experience and proper training in more advanced software development.
Show threadpatchMar 15, 2025
@NotYourSysadmin Maybe! I would argue it’s probably not you that is the problem in that respect, Python and JavaScript in particular both enable terrible habits. For example, Go won’t compile with unused variables, the others mentioned really don’t care about that and so you wind up with a lot of dead code just wherever without knowing it’s a problem. But what you’re seeking is the convention of a language, for Python this would be learning about the import system and src/ layout. I highly recommend taking a look at uv and ruff for package management and linting. Anyway, not trying to word vomit towards you, just a few thoughts from my experience.
Show threadBasil BerntsenMar 16, 2025
@NotYourSysadmin have you considered auditing a few of the intro level courses from a degree? That will expose you to the paradigms that professional developers all got exposed to. This could be useful for providing a framework on how to learn what you’re working on. I suspect you could probably find the same content available for free from one of the open academia projects, or even just YouTube.
Show threadA Sysadmin, but not *your* SysadminMar 16, 2025
@Basil404 I have, yes. My spouse actually does work for one of our local universities, but they don't offer online or evening sections of those intro classes for their upcoming fall term. I'm still waiting for other universities to publish their fall class schedules to see what other options may exist. I hadn't considered any open academia or YouTube though, I'll give those a search. I appreciate the ideas!
Show threadBasil BerntsenMar 16, 2025
@NotYourSysadmin I have a few skills that I kind of learned by doing, and a few I was taught. I found that for certain types of skills, it’s easier to master it when you learn it in a structured way at the base level.